What is that matter? The
 property of the father of this Sextus Roscius, which is six millions of sesterces , which one of the most powerful young men of our city
 at this present time, Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus, says he bought of that most gallant
 and most illustrious man Lucius Sulla, whom I only name to do him honour, for two thousand
 sesterces . He, O judges, demands of you that, since he,
 without any right, has taken possession of the property of another, so abundant and so
 splendid, and as the life of Sextus Roscius appears to him to stand in the way of and to
 hinder his possession of that property, you will efface from his mind every suspicion, and
 remove all his fear. He does not think that, while this man is safe, he himself can keep
 possession of the ample and splendid patrimony of this innocent man; but if he be
 convicted and got rid of, he hopes he may be able to waste and squander in luxury what he
 has acquired by wickedness. He begs that you will take from his mind this uneasiness which
 day and night is pricking and harassing him, so as to profess yourselves his assistants in
 enjoying this his nefariously acquired booty. If his
 demand seems to you just and honourable, O judges, I, on the other hand, proffer this
 brief request, and one, as I persuade myself, somewhat more reasonable still. 
 
 First of all, I ask of Chrysogonus to be content with our money and our fortunes, and not
 to seek our blood and our lives. In the second place, I beg you, O judges, to resist the
 wickedness of audacious men; to relieve the calamities of the innocent, and in the cause
 of Sextus Roscius to repel the danger which is being aimed at every one. But if any pretence for the accusation—if any suspicion of this act—if,
 in short, any, the least thing be found,—so that in bringing forward this accusation they
 shall seem to have had some real object,—if you find any cause whatever for it, except
 that plunder which I have mentioned, I will not object to the life of Sextus Roscius being
 abandoned to their pleasure. But if there is no other object in it, except to prevent
 anything being wanting to those men, whom nothing can satisfy, if this alone is contended
 for at this moment, that the condemnation of Sextus Roscius may be added as a sort of
 crown, as it were, to this rich and splendid booty,—though many things be infamous, still
 is not this the most infamous of all things, that you should be thought fitting men for
 these fellows now to expect to obtain by means of your sentences and your oaths, what they
 have hitherto been in the habit of obtaining by wickedness and by the sword; that though
 you have been chosen out of the state into the senate because of your dignity, and out of
 the senate into this body because of your inflexible love of justice—still assassins and
 gladiators should ask of you, not only to allow them to escape the punishment which they
 ought to fear and dread at your hands for their crimes, but also that they may depart from
 this court adorned and enriched with the spoils of Sextus Roscius? Of such important and such atrocious actions, I am aware that I can neither speak with
 sufficient propriety, nor complain with sufficient dignity, nor cry out against with
 sufficient freedom. For my want of capacity is a hindrance to my speaking with propriety;
 my age, to my speaking with dignity; the times themselves are an obstacle to my speaking
 with freedom. To this is added great fear, which both nature and my modesty cause me, and
 your dignity, and the violence of our adversaries, and the danger of Sextus Roscius. On
 which account, I beg and entreat of you, O judges, to hear what I have to say with
 attention, and with your favourable construction. Relying on your integrity and wisdom, I have undertaken a greater burden than, I am well
 aware, I am able to bear. If you, in some degree, lighten this burden, O judges, I will
 bear it as well as I can with zeal and industry. But if, as I do not expect, I am
 abandoned by you, still I will not fail in courage, and I will bear what I have undertaken
 as well as I can. But if I cannot support it, I had rather be overwhelmed by the weight of
 my duty, than either through treachery betray, or through weakness of mind desert, that
 which has been once honestly entrusted to me.